knowledge of all that was going on in Russia, Sweden, England, and
Austria. Among the subjects upon which it was desirable to obtain
information I included negotations, treaties, military measures--such as
recruiting troops beyond the amount settled for the peace establishment,
movements of troops, the formation of camps and magazines, financial
operations, the fitting-out of ships, and many other things, which,
though not important in themselves, frequently lead to the knowledge of
what is important.

I was not inclined to place reliance on all public reports and gossiping
stories circulated on the Exchange without close investigation; for I
wished to avoid transmitting home as truths what might frequently be mere
stock-jobbing inventions. I was instructed to keep watch on the
emigrants, who were exceedingly numerous in Hamburg and its
neighbourhood, Mecklenburg, Hanover, Brunswick, and Holstein; but I must
observe that my inspection was to extend only to those who were known to
be actually engaged in intrigues and plots.

I was also to keep watch on the state of the public mind, and on the
journals which frequently give it a wrong direction, and to point out
those articles in the journals which I thought censurable. At first I
merely made verbal representations and complaints, but I could not always
confine myself to this course. I received such distinct and positive
orders that, in spite of myself, inspection was speedily converted into
oppression. Complaints against the journals filled one-fourth of my
despatches.

As the Emperor wished to be made acquainted with all that was printed
against him, I sent to Paris, in May 1805, and consequently a very few
days after my arrival in Hamburg, a pamphlet by the celebrated Kotzebue,